I have the nerve to actually use the word "best" in advertising my place; Bestmaze Corn Maze & Trail of Terror. I actually claim to have the best maze around. But with all I do; and all the other mazes I see I say it with a straight face. The maze is designed, prepared, patrolled, and rainfall managed for best experience possible.

The location is one mile from a interchange of major Interstate highway. The field has large parking lot with security personel. We installed a complete susbsurface drainage system with close to 5 miles of 4" drain tile under the 20 acre field. Heay rains soak in a get away fast and maze does not become a mud bog. All 3 miles of our maze trails are carefully graded and hand raked smooth, and packed. Wheel chairs and baby strollers easily navigate our trails as if they were a 5 foot wide sidewalk. Besides the subsurface tiling; as trails are built; where trails cross the natural flow contour of the field 10 foot long 4" tubes cross inches under the trails much like culverts do where your driveway crosses your ditch. We design trail layout, trail slope, drainage, and water management so well; that within half an hour of a 1" rain I can jump up and down on our trails (I am 180#) and not sink in more than 1/8 inch ANYWHERE...and usually do not even leave a mark. We hear the horror stories every year of "Last year we went to a different maze and walked in 2 inches of mud".

Maze Design. The maze is designed around 4 security towers that oversee the maze and communicate with each other. Customers are never more than a couple turns from direct line of sight with one or two towers. This allows customers to ask for help at any time and not feel abandoned. Of course this set up also allows for maximum ease and effectiveness of patrolling. Maze cut through and destruction is held in check. Maze quality is as good on Oct 31 as it is on Sept 12. There are not a dozen "customer made" short cuts. Parents who have been here before have learned to relax knowing we can keep tabs on their kids. A paniced parent cant find Suzy...she gives description to closest tower position and it is instantly radioed to the other towers and "leg" patrols. Very quickly the parent hears that Suzy is located and hand signal directions can rejoin them. As closing time comes a thourogh "leg" sweep combined with eyes in the sky assure the different sections are empty.

The maze flow is such that Mom does not spend the night looking for little Billy who ended up on a different side of the field in first 10 minutes. Maze flow is designed so that no one is able to spoil your fun by being able to declare large chunks as "That way is a dead end". Signed optional exits occur every 10-15 minutes. It is designed so it is fun for all aspects of society. It is CHALLENGING for hard core mazers...and manageable for little olf ladies and no one ever has to call 911.

"Laugh in the maze or scream on the Trail of Terror." Spending an hour cursing Wicked Farmer for making you walk back and forth lost vowing not to ask a tower for help not your style? Fine; hit the haunted trail ON OTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD. We never haunt the maze. We haunt a 1/3 mile trail that twists through the corn so you can not see what happens to the group in front of you. Props are rotated yearly except for a vortex tunnel. Never the same show two years in a row. For a $15 combo ticket you can do both events. Or $6 for the maze & $10 for the intense haunted trail.

1) You did not invent this idea. This has been around as an urban legend for decades, since before I can even remember. You also heard it from Howie; he used this concept back in 2000. So this idea is clearly NOT your intellectual property and I would argue it cannot be anyone's bacause the urban legends are just so widespread. So I think your patent will fall through.

I agree with this. Urban Legends Haunted House in the Detroit area was doing this very thing well over a decade ago. I'm thinking they go back at least 15, maybe more, years. I saw these guys at TransWorld and what I read on their printed materials really bugged me - where they claim that they "own" this concept when it's been done before. This is fact. I also didn't like the way they talked about "aggressively protecting" their intellectual property. Maybe to somebody who doesn't know any better these guys seem like a wonderful opportunity. All I see them doing is taking a concept that's been done before, trying to call it their own and trying to convince people that this was their idea. Maybe I should try to patent "Moving Vehicle Haunted Entertainment Venues" then aggressively go after any haunted hayrides that don't license it from me...

Sorry, we were doing haunted car trunks back in the mid 70's. It overlapped with how you got into a drive in theater without paying for a couple more people.

Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

We also have a patent on crowd engineering, mass population putting soap in fountains at a specific time.

Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

We have one about an hour away claiming 8 Haunts and it's 20.00.
The first 2 are about 3 minutes long (up some stairs-around 4-5 rooms-back down stairs)...the next one is mostly dark with 1 decent scare...the next 2 are back to short 3-5 minute haunts then a fogged out maze one and a vortex tunnel is the last one. It's at a small amusement park and the last level is the roller coaster at night (the only 'ride' open).
They don't even start building it until September.
The craziness is they claim to get 20,000-30,000 people a season.

Kirk

Reminds me of my experience at Busch Gardens Halloween Whatever in VA. Thank Heavens the rides were still open and that they had speed passes, cuz they had hour long waits or worse on some "haunts" that barely would have qualified as an elementary school fund-raiser. Everything literally looked like they threw it up the night before.

Cookie, A trademark is simply an associative Name or Words reserved to identify a brand, and protected by the US Gov't. It's crucial to the business world and protects intellectual property for the original claim filed. Just like the Music Industry, Restaurants, and countless other businesses have in place, to prevent knockoffs. It's the circle R you see in everyday life, and protected by the USPTO. But the Trademarks (The Ability to call yourself a "Money Back" anything in the Haunt Industry) is only a part of what my License provides.

FYI a trademark is not a patent and they have very different rights and protections associated with them. Even if you were planning on offering a money back guarantee, you probably still could. You just couldn't advertise it in a way that would be confused with his haunts.

*THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVISE. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE'S ACTIONS> CONSULT AN ATTORNEY.

Forget Attorneys, just slap the shit out of anyone that lies, cheats and steals.

Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

I'm not a lawyer either ..nor giving legal advice. They are not trademarking "Money Back" since it had to be disclaimed. In my other world I had to do the same for "fitness" . I had to disclaim it or my Mark would not be allowed so anyone can use it outside my mark. He also Trademarked Money back challenge and money back haunted house... but then again these are service marks and the mark disclaim "Money Back" . With common use in the industry of the whole marks I am guessing it wouldn't be hard to show these terms as generic and not distinctive in a court.
I am not sure why he thinks he can protect the words "Money back" in the haunt industry because he had to disclaim them on all his trademarks... maybe his lawyer didn't tell him?